Pork safe to eat, hog farmers emphasize

Hog farmers are stressing that pork is safe to eat and that their pigs are not to blame for what they call the “unfortunately named” swine flu that’s dominating headlines.

Melissa Westphal

Hog farmers are stressing that pork is safe to eat and that their pigs are not to blame for what they call the “unfortunately named” swine flu that’s dominating headlines.

Hog prices dipped today while national health officials worked overtime to disseminate information on the new flu strain. Forty cases have been confirmed in the U.S. as of Monday, and people have died in Mexico from the disease.

Cases of swine flu are documented each year in the U.S., but this strain is different. While officials are still unsure how this strain started, all of the U.S. cases have been spread between humans, not from pigs to humans or humans to pigs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the illness can not be caught by eating pork products.

The World Organization for Animal Health on Monday said there is no justification for naming the disease "swine flu" and suggested calling the disease “North-American influenza,” based on similarly named outbreaks like the Spanish flu and the Asian flu.

Brian Duncan, a hog farmer in Polo, Ill., was on the phone early this morning to the Ogle County Farm Bureau discussing what local farmers can do to help the situation.

The first step, he said, is distancing the disease from pigs and food because no connection has been found in the U.S.

“There’s a ton of economic uncertainty right now, and it’s based on perception instead of reality,” said Duncan, who also serves as president of the Ogle farm bureau. “This could mean a significant economic blow to the industry just because of what it happens to be named.”

Next, farmers should get in touch with local legislators for help in protecting pork production in the U.S. and opening a dialogue with international trading partners to make sure they don’t unnecessarily ban meat imports from U.S. providers.

Russia has already banned meat imports from Mexico, several U.S. states and nine Latin American nations, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

“Pork is very competitive in the world market, and Russia wants to see its own domestic pork industry grow,” Duncan said. “We don’t want countries using this issue as an excuse not to buy our products. Pork is safe.”

Duncan pointed out that pigs in the U.S. are vaccinated against swine flu. He produces about 40,000 hogs a year.